NorwayFood and Drink

Due to its coastline, fish is a natural food staple in Norwegian cuisine. Many dishes are made up of ingredients traditionally found in Norway like game meat – elk, reindeer, and moose – and potatoes, root vegetables, and fresh produce lightly spiced with herbs, salt and pepper.

Around the Christmas season you’ll find the aromas of Pinnekjott in kitchens across the country cooking this meal of lamb ribs served with sausages, mashed potatoes and mashed rutabaga. Lutefisk is also a holiday mean – stockfish softened in water and lye, then grilled and served with bacon, potato, mushy peas and mustard.

Fenelar is a leg of lamb salt cured and air dried and served thinly sliced with bread and mustard, sometimes as an appetizer. Salmon and herring are popular and plentiful, and foraging in the wild for berries and mushrooms is a fun cultural activity.

If you like cheese, definitely try brunost, a fudge-like brown cheese both sweet and sharp, sliced into wafer thin pieces and served on bread or toast, sometimes with honey. And for your sweet tooth, Multekrem is a popular summer dessert made up of the sweet and tart cloudberry, and a dollop of whipped cream.

Alcohol can be somewhat limited and expensive in Norway, in part to emphasize responsible drinking. Brewing craft beer is gaining traction and becoming popular. Farmhouse ales are popular, and made with local ingredients. Ringnes and Hansa are popular brands and lots of Norwegians like their pils.

Most wines and spirits are more imported, but there are apple and blackcurrant wines made locally. Aquavit is the national drink, a potato based spirit flavoured with herbs, caraway seeds, anise, dill, fennel, coriander. A Scandinavian drink, the Nordic Negroni is made with aquavit instead of gin and a cloudberry mojito uses cloudberry liqueur and fresh cloudberries.

The drinking age is 18 for beer and wine, and any drink up to 22% ABV, then 20 years of age for drinks over 22% ABV.